Angel's Descent
by AngelSlayer
Summary: Chapter 3's been changed. E-mail your comments/suggestions directly to me.
1. Omega Angel

Chapter 1: Omega Angel  
  
It seemed like a fairly simple mission, easy too. I was to help a squad of plated chicken-walker MTs stop an AC from destroying a small tech lab. I thought it was a sure thing until I saw the AC itself. It was colored white with red and blue sections, reminding me of a story I once read about a patriotic superhero. It came screaming towards the MTs and me, its dragging humanoid legs tearing up the streets of Isaac City. He was armed with a WG-AR1000 machine gun, a blue event sword and a WC-GN230 grenade launcher. When he got within about 200 meters, his AC blasted almost straight up into the air. He descended onto the valiant, yet doomed MTs, raining machine gun shells down upon them. One MT managed to scoot away and return fire, but the shots did little, if any damage, before it was split in two by the assailant's beam saber. Hitting the ground and turning to the only surviving MT, the machine kneeled down and armed its grenade launcher. A moment later, the MT and about a ten yard radius around it were engulfed in flame. He stood up, walked over to the tech lab and attached a bomb to it.  
  
"You should choose your company more carefully," he said through his communication system to mine. I just sat there frozen with fear while he set the timer on the explosive. When he got up to leave, I finally activated my transmission system and spoke.  
  
"Why are you sparing me?" I managed to get out.  
  
"I don't kill fellow ravens without just cause." With that, he turned and put his boosters on full before blasting off. My COM system crackled out one last message: "My name is Omega Angel." It was almost too late when I realized that I had to get out of there, and headed back to base. I looked around just in time to see the tech lab explode and the halved MT's fuel tanks ignite. When I got back to base, I showered and headed for the restaurant where I was meeting some of my friends.  
  
"How many in your party?" the clerk asked.  
  
"Ah, shut up Fugami, I'm not in the mood," I replied as I walked over to where my friends were sitting. Larissa, or Otaku as she liked to be called, was sitting next to me while Ben, formally known as Dragonslayer, and Tokari, arena name G-Fan, sat on the other side of the table. By the way, my name is Alex, and in the arena, I go by Demon Hunter.  
  
"So Alex, how went the mission?" Larissa asked.  
  
"I failed and came away with my life. It was incredible," I began telling them. "It was supposed to be simple, I even had six MTs with me."  
  
"Armored chickens?" Tokari inquired.  
  
"Yep, your favorite if I can recall." I began again. "But Chrome forgot to tell me who the AC was. You guys ever heard of Omega Angel?" Only Tokari nodded. "Well, him or her, I don't really know much about that mech. It came straight towards us and took out the MTs lickety-split. He put a bomb on the lab, armed it and boosted back home."  
  
"He say anything to you?" Ben asked.  
  
"Yeah, told me he didn't kill other ravens without just cause," I said. "He told me his name, too...then he left." 


	2. First Conflict

Chapter 2: First Conflict  
  
It was a good meal, no better than usual but it was good. We all sat there, waiting for the check to come and making casual conversation until Ben spotted a story on the news.  
"The supposed terrorist Omega Angel strikes again," The announcer stated. "A guard of six MTs was completely wiped out and a minor chrome tech lab destroyed." At that point the large projection screen began to show footage of the attack. "Even sadder was the Raven that just stood there during the entire attack." He started again as it showed more of the embarrassing mission. "I wouldn't wanna be that guy right about now. In other news..."  
"Damn," I said quietly, then said "Damn" again louder, but still under my breath.  
"Hey, Demon Hunter!" I heard from across the room. I saw four figures approach our table. "Ha!" the lead man said, with an arrogant aura. "Finally, you mess up like the loser you are." I knew him, Danny, but nobody called him that anymore. Everybody called him ZioFanatic. He chose that because of his obvious obsession over Zio Matrix, one of the lead corporations. He and his three friends were a disdainful AC pilot group who hated me because I stopped them from completing a mission for half the money they were getting for it. I knew where this conversation was headed, but I let it continue as my head hit the old wooden table. "What's the matter? Too embarrassed to show your face?" he barked out as his friends chuckled.  
"Shut up, fanboy," I replied as I lifted my head from the table to meet him. "You wouldn't have done any better."  
"Me and my group would have taken Omega Angel down, you wimp."  
"And you would have all died in the process, Dannyboy." I knew he hated being called this, but I didn't anticipate his reaction as a sword rose from his cloak and raced toward my leg. I was barely able to parry it with a knife I kept in pocket and as the steel connected there was a resounding 'clang', which drew the attention of the entire restaurant. "You wanna fight, we'll do it in the Arena." I forced the sword back at him while getting up.  
"No way, you and me...but maybe with my team we have a deal." He stated. He never did missions or fought matches without his team.  
"Sure!" answered Larissa.  
"Fine by me." Tokari responded  
"Bring it on!" Ben said. They all stood up.   
"Then we have a deal?" I retorted.  
"Tomorrow morning at 8. I'll file the papers," he said as they walked away.  
"Thanks guys, but Tokari's AC isn't ready yet."  
"If I work a little time tonight and I borrow that pair of arms from you it'll be ready." She said, taking away all of my excuses. "Fine, then I'll help you. I'll see you in an hour with the truck."  
"OK, I'll give you the money then." With this, she got up and paid the clerk as she left. "I'll see you guys later." I bid them farewell as I left.  
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In about an hour I was over at the AC garage with the arm unit I kept in storage. It was a prototype arm I stole on the same mission that thwarted ZioFanatic. I didn't use them because word of them would've gotten out, but now I had no choice since Tokari needed them for the fight. The garage was a mess of AC's being repaired and altered. I found the G-Fan logo on the side of Tokari's stall and headed in with the part and part transport. "HEY!" I yelled up at Tokari on the AC Bridge, which allowed easy access to different parts of your mech.  
"Hi. Hook the arms into the lifter and take the elevator," she yelled back down as I drove into the lifter area. After hooking together the lifters and the arms I headed up the stairs because Tokari had forgotten to send the elevator back down. The staircase seemed to stretch on forever, but somehow I made it to the top. There, I found Tokari grinning and operating the lifters. I walked over to her, picked up a blowtorch and started repairing the damaged torso. Her AC was called the G-Repulser, a second homage to her obsession with Godzilla. It was metallic gray with green-black and blood red parts. The weapons it used were laid out on the floor in a scattered pile; all custom designed to take down Godzilla if it actually appeared. Tokari had spent a lot of time designing her AC and a lot of money too; she had been kicked out of apartments 7 times because she couldn't pay the rent and ended up rooming with me or Larissa. The giant machine had humanoid legs with above average speed. Her core is a reinforced version of the original, with a high voltage, one charge shock gun located where the machine gun used to be mounted. The head is a modified RedEye, fitted with a special biosensor, a radiation interference filter and a high resolution heat sensor. Tokari's old arm units had been rendered useless on her last mission when the hydraulics gave out trying to hold back another AC. The arms I brought were a high-powered hydraulics model produced to provide greater speed and strength in melee combat. "You know I've had my eye on those arms for a long time, Alex," she said as I finished the small section of heat damage I was working on.  
"Really? Then how come you never said anything about it?"  
"I don't know. You just seemed to want to keep them a secret."  
"I just don't want to find out where they came from and then find out the people want them back."  
"Oh well, that shouldn't be a problem. I mean, how many people want to see the four of us take down the stupid Zio four?"  
"I hope you're right." I got back onto my knee and started on a bullet hole. "How'd they puncture this armor?"  
"They had an MT with a rail gun; nearly knocked out my generator."  
Then something hit me. "Can I take a break and access the web? I wanna get some info on that MT."  
"Sure, but be quick. There's a lot of work to do and I need to get some sleep," she stated as she screwed the arms onto the core. I dropped my blowtorch and raced to her computer console. Grabbing the keyboard, I accessed my account on the Raven's Nest database. Inside my mission details I found the schematics for a railgun possibly to be fitted onto an MT. "Do you remember what it looked like?" I asked as I continued to peruse the blueprints.  
"Hold on one sec, I have it recorded it in my AC. Oh yeah, it had about 17 sets of magnets, a flux accelerator at the end and a circular magazine at the back," she yelled back. I continued to look at the file and found that it was info given to me about the tech lab. The description she gave was almost a complete match. "Who was attacking you again?"  
"I don't know, but I think it was a corporation." After I checked out the schematics again I returned to closing up the hole. My mind kept returning to what Omega Angel had said. "You should choose your company more carefully", he had said and now I found it to be so true. How could I launch a mission for a corporation that had attacked my friend just two days earlier? I should have gathered more info before rushing off like a blind fool. I decided not to tell Tokari about what I'd found. Instead we talked about what I would use on my mech for the upcoming fight. We decided on a low model, low energy drain, event sword and a machine gun for my arm weapons. Then we got the idea of using a linear gun and a magazine for my back weapons. We were talking about whether I should change anything on my basic chassis when I noticed the time. "Wow, it's 2 AM. We'd better get some sleep." I said, half-yawning.   
"Yeah, we do need some rest for the match," she replied as we walked towards the elevator and got on. "Or at least for the party afterwards."  
"A party if we win, right? Well, it'll have to be a short one 'cause I promised Larissa and her sister that I'd meet them at the shop." I compromised as we stepped off of the lift.  
"Trina?" My reply was a nod of my head. "I'd love to go with you, but I've got a date with the firing range. A new custom just came in." After this we exchanged good-byes and stepped into our cars for the ride home.   
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My alarm clock woke me up at 7:00, giving me just enough time to get some breakfast at the garage restaurant. I drove to the AC garage and bought some scrambled eggs, which I gobbled up greedily before rushing to my stall. Entering the huge section, which greatly resembled a cubicle, I climbed the stairs and into my silvery-white AC. From inside the cockpit I equipped my mech with the parts Tokari and I had discussed a machine gun, an event sword, a linear gun and finally a magazine cartridge. After securing my weapons I switched my systems on and scanned all frequencies for my teammates. I found Tokari and Larissa on one channel and got Ben to get on the same one as the rest of us. "You guys on the field already?" I inquired over the radio.  
"Nope, waiting for you at the transport," Ben replied.  
"Hurry up, I'm itching for some action," added Tokari.  
"We're at gate five," offered Larissa. I asked the garage manager for clearance to move. When he gave it, I quickly found my friends with their ACs parked in a transport.  
"Let's get this show on the road," I said as the vehicle brought our giant machines to the great stadium, resembling the ancient coliseum. There, we found bigger crowds than we'd expected, and thought our humanoid ACs were not what they were waiting for. In actuality we were right; they didn't cheer so much for us as they did for the Zio four when they entered at the opposite end of the stage. The Zio four, headed by ZioFanatic, was just about the snootiest team you could find. They scoffed at everyone that didn't work for Zio Matrix and thought their strategy to be the best. The whole basis of their plan was to utilize the power of all four types of legs. ZioFanatic's AC was always found to be equipped with Spider legs as were his team mates fitted with humanoid, caterpillar and reverse joint leg models. They carried an assortment of weapons, and the way their color schemes converged seemed to be the reason for a lot of the fans. Their basic Zio Matrix paint scheme, with almost no variation, made them seem to go together despite the difference in their AC model. Tokari, Larissa, Ben and I had a totally different idea going on. We each had a humanoid leg model of our own, but besides that didn't have much in common. We weren't much to look at together, though our colors worked well individually, because our paint jobs clashed so much. I had a silvery white scheme; Tokari preferred a green, black and red combination; Larissa liked sections of yellow, green, and blue; Ben incorporated a desert brown with red idea. I switched my COM system back on and found Danny on a frequency I never used because of telephone interference.  
"How much is riding on this fight for us?" I spoke through the microphone.  
"For you, 35,000 credits each," my speakers crackled back, along with some dribble from the spectators. "And for us it's only 100,000 total, they seem to like us better."  
"That's not what really matters here, though. What matters is who wins," I shot back, and tuned to the frequency my team was using. "You ready?"  
"Yeah!" They all replied in unison. After waiting a few seconds, I switched our condition light to yellow indicating that we were ready. A couple seconds later, the other group switched theirs to yellow, causing a chain reaction. I flicked the light to green, and a penetrating siren indicated the start of the fight. "Larissa, you and I will take the low riders," I told them. "Ben and Tokari, you guys take the real legs." No one protested.  
  
(A/N: I run these chapters through my friend to spell/grammar check them. When this chapter was uploaded, I found out that it had been radically altered, changing the meaning of certain passages. If I can find the original version of this chapter, I may post it for you reviewers for comparison.) 


	3. First Demon

Chapter 3: First Demon  
  
I looked out and the early morning sun shown and reflected off of the Zio-four's armor. I armed my weapons but still didn't make a move. The Zio's blue ACs advanced a little but nothing else and I could see the crowd getting kinda edgy and annoyed at the way nothing was happening. Ben must have noticed too because I looked to my side and saw him raise his sniper rifle. He didn't even wait for a lock and quickly popped a few shots as he boosted to the side a little. Taking his cue I kneeled my mech down and felt a rush as I fired three rounds from my linear gun. The high speed shots flew by the enemy mechs and hit the energy barrier at the edge of the arena. The sniper rifle shots followed and I put my boosters on overdrive. "Never mind with the leg groups, just take down anyone you see," I said into my COM system and let my AC speed towards the four-legged mech.  
  
I heard the blast of boosters igniting behind me and I new I wasn't the only one headed for close  
combat. My energy meter ran down to about half way when I cut my boosters completely and jumped  
out of the way of an energy rifle shot. The impact shook my robot and the ground as I landed and  
shot several shots of my machine gun at the spider leg Zio fan. I could feel my adrenaline really  
pumping now and I switched on the radio. Heavy metal blasted back at me as another energy blast  
missed my legs. Finally the four legged one reacted and armed a rocket launcher on his back. I  
ducked away from his first shot and extended my beam saber. The reddish orange blade glistened  
while he armed a second explosive. I took the opportunity to jam my energy blade into his rocket salvo. The explosion from the high combustibles and the high heat source gave me a sense of satisfaction. I retracted my saber and dropped my machine gun while he attempted to move his arm.  
The shoulder plate had been blown off and I smiled as the smoke cleared, revealing open circuitry.  
I punched at his core but he caught the large metal fist and fired a pulse rifle shot into it. I  
staggered backwards but didn't go far before a blow landed on my back. I fired my boosters and rammed into my opponent, hoping the hit on my back was from a melee strike. I caught his head with me working hand and continued to push the behemoth into the wall's unseen barrier. I used my ACs giant grip to crush his head along with his cameras. I new he couldn't fight very well when he was blind so I reversed my direction and flew towards the first thing I saw. It was the reverse jointed member of the group. Tokari was currently engaged in a event saber dual with him. I tried to get to the fight as soon as I could but Tokari made a mistake and her arm was separated from her core with a swift blade motion. The blue AC retracted his beam saber and knocked the g-repulsor to the ground with a powerful push of it's huge arm. But as my friend landed on the ground the chest of her mech lit up and a large shock generated from the core mounted gun. The energy coursed through the enemy AC and probably short circuited a few systems. I armed my linear gun again dragged my knees on the ground while I stopped my engines. With a scream I let loose round after round into the AC's animal like legs. The armor cracked, the casing buckled and finally the metal giant fell to the earth with a mighty crash. I finished him off by pumping one more shot into his single booster.   
  
A high speed shot hit me from the side and another came after it hitting almost the same spot. The appendage was disabled and I whirled around to face my attacker. It was the tank. I ripped off my limp arm and used it as a shield against the next shot. I threw the battered piece of machinery at the enemy as Ben closed in from behind pelting the tank based AC with rifle shots. Ben approached and jammed his saber into the back of our foe. A flashback explosion ripped through the tank and   
traced along Ben's energy blade. His AC staggered backwards scorched by the fires of the booster containment rupture.  
  
I looked to my left and saw Larissa letting loose a torrent of energy shots at the humanoid Zio fan. He danced inbetween the luminescent bolts and a yell of frustration came from my COM system. Something hit me from behind and I turned around. There was Danny standing on the cockpit bridge firing his energy rifle by eyesight. I brought my AC to a kneeling position and fired several shots at the spider mech. The magnetically accelerated shots whizzed through the air striking his legs first then his weapon. Knowing he was finally out of commission I turned my attention back to Larissa. The humanoid had her AC held up by its neck area and extended his brilliant white blade into abdomen area where her power flow regulators were located. My fingers found their way across the keypad and I diverted what booster I had left into a charge at the humanoid. He let Larissa's mech hit the arena floor and turned not to me but to Ben. A grenade launcher on his back unfolded and he kneeled his AC down. The triggered was pulled and a fiery shell burst forth to speed towards Ben. The already burnt surface turned black from the heat and impact pressure. One final   
round escaped the beaten and bruised figure. It rushed at the last remaining Zio fan with a lust for his blood. He took the shot straight in the chest and staggered back. I caught him off guard but only managed to hit his radar with my untouched arm. He powered up his beautiful blade again as I cut my boosters and diverted their circuits into my own event sword. The shining sabers danced with each other in a vicious duet. Like our minds they connected time and time again, crackling and repelling the other. I jumped towards the sky and brought my weapon down with as much force as I could muster. Even with all I had backing me up he stepped to the side causing me to hit and take off hit arm. He jammed his saber into my generator and I quickly used it too super charge my blade. It flared hotter and brighter than the sun eating away at his armor as his attack fed mine. My beam grew wider and more destructive but stopped after his radiator melted and caused his AC to shut down completely. Mine did the same as his retracted my energy source. Both our metal giants fell to the ground with a tremendous crash.  
  
I sat their in my cockpit for what seemed like hours I knew the fight was over, but who would the judges decide on? Still breathing heavily I used the emergency escape handle and stepped out of my AC. The battlefield was a mess and as I thought the stands had cleared. I got back into the pilot's seat but kept the door open. I heard movement outside on the metal surface, like someone was climbing up. I sat their and waited for the decision and slipped into a deep train of thought. 


End file.
